On the necessity of perseverance

I'll admit that most of my life the good things have come pretty easily. That has actually made it hard for me to reach for those things that don't come easily. But eventually the things that don't come easily have become the things that I want most, and so I have had to get out of my comfort zone and actually WORK for what I want.

Kodular was fun at first, but the ease of the initial programming gave way to the frustration and tedium of coding, test, debugging forever, etc. I had to ask myself if I wanted to really spend the next few years of my life being the main developer for the app. And I got a resounding NO WAY! Designing the app is work, but fulfilling, joyful, creative work with a minimum of frustration. That I can see  myself doing for the remainder of my life. But staring programming in the face, I realize clearly that this is not my thing.

So, I am back to the design phase and accepting the fact that getting this to market is going to take a significant cash outlay.

Therefor, I  am redesigning the app to cut out the fat and focus on the core needs of the game, and the monetization features that will (hopefully) help me to bring in enough income to continue development of the game.

So, in a sense, another failure that moves me closer to success. That's just the way it goes sometimes. 

In talking about the game with people, I realize that some have issues with the use of the word failure. Guilt, shame, resistance, whatever. I will probably offer a way to replace that word in the game at some point, but ultimately, I think that without embracing failure as a step toward success, one is handicapped in their pursuit of success. That's just my opinion drawn from my own experience. Your mileage may differ.

And if we have been judged harshly by others in the past for our failures, perhaps the answer is not to try to avoid the use of the word, but to push through the trauma that it may have caused and come to embrace failure for what it truly is - just a necessary step on the road to success.

My Intention is to have the UI/UX completed within the next week and submitted to selected developers for quotes. Then my hope will be to get the Beta draft of the game in the hands of testers within the following 30 days. That's pretty aggressive, which is why I verbalize it as a 'hope' at this time, rather than an Intention. More about 'hope' perhaps later on.

More small successes - and frustrations!

Small successes aren't as exhilarating as huge successes, but it's rare to have huge successes every day. Sometimes it's the small successes that keep me motivated and moving toward the larger ones.

I've been working on this app since early February. The design part was simply great fun and daily huge successes as I saw the mockup/design grow each day.

Ah, but then working with the developers. Long story short - very frustrating! Failure heaped upon failure. :(

So, now I'm learning to develop it myself in Kodular. Small successes and small failures. But its coming along. Have had to restart from scratch twice. But I should have something worth showing in a few days, and maybe the MVP within the next week or so. Fingers crossed!

Here are a couple of screenshots, including some glitches I'm still trying to resolve.

The great thing about this journey is that I've had a chance to rethink the design each time I begin again. This time I'm using a color scheme created by my granddaughter, Trish. Cool, hey?

Honestly, it's a bit more fun than frustration - though that depends on the time of day. :)

Til next time - 

You deserve SUCCESS NOW! 

It's great, no it's awful, no it's ...

It's ... well, it's been a topsy-turvy few days, filled with long hours, failures, frustration and successes. I finally let go of the developer I was working with - a difficult choice and one that left me with an odd mixture of relief and anguish. 

The search for a new developer was arduous and unpleasant, I was way out of my comfort zone there. Prices for completing the MVP (minimally viable product) ranged from a sole $500 to upwards of $1,000. And it's not that I couldn't afford it, even though my gut told me that it shouldn't really be that much work for a good developer. I could, but was totally unable to ascertain whether or not a specific developer could do the job for the price quoted without a lot of hassle.

So, I looked at several tools which might let me do the job myself. Most of the tools were too cumbersome, too complex or too simple and aimed at the hobby app market. I finally settled on Kodular, an online IDE that has a moderately good UI design tool and a block-based coding approach.

Just last night I got to the point where I am fairly confident that I can do the job, with one more hurdle to be very confident. I will need some help, but they have an active community forum, some YouTube videos and less than optimal documentation that has been helpful so far.

I don't really like this part of the job, the original design work was loads of fun, this part is some fun but lots of trail & error and frustration. But I do have total control over the process without having to beg, plead and threaten someone else to get my vision developed right.

... and on with the show!

Success Now!

We deserve it

Slowing down and focusing

Sometimes just plowing ahead isn't the best option. After about a month and a half of working on the game, I have reached a sort of plateau where I can see clearly what else needs to be done to get the game to a releasable level. Still quite a bit of work. But the frantic pace cannot be maintained forever. At least now, at least at my age.  😊😊

So, the past couple of days have been about unfocusing and taking care of some unrelated mundane matters, and then refocusing in a bit more relaxed manner. Still moving ahead, but a little less feverish passion and a bit more thoughtfulness.

Was looking for some support/resources here in the SF Bay Area and didn't find anything close by, so started a new group in Meetup.com for Mobile Development. 

Sixteen 'members' in the first 24 hours, and now up to 23, with 4 members RSVPing to the first meeting just 2 days from now. This should be FUN!

Of course it's an online meetup due to COVID, but hopefully face-to-face at some point when it is comparatively safe.

And still my friend Dennis are playing the game daily using a shared spreadsheet, and it is driving us both toward better, faster more efficient successes. YAY!

This game is going to be dynamite.

Success Now! You deserve it.

Len